spring onion and coriander pancakes with soy sauce recipe

I love these Korean pancakes, sharp from spring onion and fragrant from plenty of coriander. They're quick and easy to make – ideal for lunch with a salad, or with an aperitif before dinner.

Makes about 12 x 13cm small pancakes or 6 x 21cm large ones

• 60g plain flour
• 30g rice flour
• slightly rounded ½ tablespoon table salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
• pinch of ground black pepper
• 4 drops of toasted sesame oil
• vegetable oil, for frying
• 5-6 spring onions (pale green and dark green parts only), diagonally sliced into 5-10mm pieces (reserve the white parts for the dipping sauce)
• small bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

For the dipping sauce

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (not seasoned)
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh coriander

Put the flours, salt, egg and egg yolk, 200ml water, chilli, pepper and sesame oil in a bowl and whisk together (the batter will be thin). Allow to stand for at least 30 minutes at room temperature.

To make the sauce, combine the soy sauce, vinegar and oil in a bowl, then stir in the sesame seeds, the reserved white spring onion parts, chopped finely, and the coriander. This dipping sauce can be made a day ahead if kept covered and chilled, but add the coriander just before serving.

Heat a teaspoon of vegetable oil in a 20cm non-stick frying pan over a moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Spoon in 1½ tablespoons of the batter, tilting the pan to spread it over the bottom. Scatter the green spring onion parts and the coriander over the top, gently pressing them into the pancake with a spatula. If you don't have a small frying pan, use a traditional 29cm pan and add 3 tablespoons of batter.

Fry the pancake until the underside is pale golden, about 2 minutes. Turn it over and cook until the spring onions are lightly browned, about 1 minute. Transfer, with the spring onion/coriander side up, to kitchen paper. Lift the paper to help roll up the pancake. Transfer to a plate and keep warm, cutting the large pancakes in half.

Carry on making pancakes, adding a little vegetable oil to the frying pan each time, until you have used up all the batter.

Serve straight away with the dipping sauce.

This recipe appears on p34 of Sarah's Food for Friends and Family cookbook.